Sacombank and the Viet Nam Young Entrepreneurs Association on July 24 signed a Memorandum of Understanding to increase opportunities to exploit the strengths of both sides, thereby better meeting demand for capital from the association's members and providing them with optimal banking and financial services and products.

The effort is part of the bank's activities to help businesses overcome difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Accordingly, Sacombank will provide special offers for the association’s members such as a 70 per cent discount on fees for guarantee services, international money transfers, and letters of credit issuance. It will also reduce lending interest rates by up to 2 per cent per year, and will offer free electronic banking and a free annual fee for the first year for business credit cards.

In the coming time, Sacombank in collaboration with the association will launch more practical programmes to help businesses expand production and trading and increase their profits, thereby contributing to the country’s economic growth.

Enhancing cooperation with business associations is one of the activities that Sacombank has focused on in recent years to timely help enterprises overcome difficulties in their production and trading.

In addition to cooperating with the Viet Nam Young Entrepreneurs Association, in 2019 the bank signed a cooperation agreement with the Viet Nam Textile and Apparel Association and HCM City Union of Business Associations to enable it to gain an in-depth understanding of various industries and deploy more comprehensive solutions for enterprises.

On July 2, at a bank-enterprises link-up conference, Sacombank earmarked VND1 trillion ($43.1 million) for preferential loans to corporate customers at interest rates starting at 6 per cent to help them restore and expand their business in the post-COVID-19 period. — VNS